BATON ROUGE – The Southeastern Conference released its 2016-17 18-game schedule and the LSU Tigers will open conference play in December for the first time since 1988 when it hosts Vanderbilt in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Thursday, Dec. 29.
The league schedule and TV networks were announced for all 14 teams by the rights-holding affiliates for conference games. The tip times and television/streaming networks for non-conference games will be announced in the near future.
LSU and the nine other schools playing in the Jan. 28 SEC/Big 12 Challenge will open their schedule on Dec. 29 and the Tigers will host Vanderbilt in a nationally-televised ESPNU contest at 8 p.m. CT. LSU has played the last three games in the series in Nashville, all LSU wins.
It will be LSU’s first game out of the holiday break which begins following a Dec. 22 non-conference game at Wake Forest.
As announced previously, LSU will play their SEC/Big 12 game at Texas Tech on Jan. 28 and that game will be televised by ESPNU at 1 p.m. CT.
In all, LSU will play a minimum of 11 teams that participated in post-season play a year ago and could play up to 13 depending on opponents in the second and third rounds of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
LSU Coach Johnny Jones enters his fifth season as the head coach of the Tigers, his 22nd season in Baton Rouge counting his years as a player, assistant coach and now head coach.
“We are excited about another tough schedule and we embrace the challenges that it presents for us,” said Coach Jones. “With our non-conference schedule that was announced last month, we certainly feel that it will prepare us for the grueling SEC schedule ahead.
“After having the third largest increase in attendance average in the nation last season which created an environment in the Maravich Center that allowed us to go 8-1 in conference play, we will certainly need our fan base to continue to play that special role in backing and supporting this team throughout our 16-home game schedule,” Coach Jones said.
Similar to last year, LSU will face every school once during the league schedule and also Alabama (Jan. 14, Feb. 18), Arkansas (Jan. 21, Feb. 11) and Texas A&M Jan. 11, Feb. 4) both home and away. The other two teams this year that LSU will be Mississippi State (Jan. 7, March 4) and Auburn (Jan. 18, Feb. 21).
The Tigers will make their first appearance at The Pavilion at Ole Miss which opened last year. The Tigers and Rebels will meet on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 8 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Besides the five home games with the teams that it will play twice, LSU will also host Vanderbilt, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. LSU will host one SEC game on a Tuesday, three on Wednesdays, one on Thursday and four-of-its-nine home games on Saturdays during the conference season.
So far, LSU will have 15 games on the SEC Network and a minimum of five games on ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU). LSU’s second and third round games in the Battle 4 Atlantis will air either on ESPN or the AXS network depending on state time.
New season ticket deposits are now being accepted for the 2016-17 men’s and women’s basketball campaigns online at www.LSUtix.net and at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office. Deposits are $25 a ticket to reserve your season tickets for the upcoming season.
Seat locations will be assigned at a later time in late September based on LSU Philanthropic Rank as of April 30, 2016. The $25 deposit will be applied to the cost of the season tickets once the seats are assigned. Season tickets start at $100 for men’s basketball.
Follow updates on LSU men’s basketball at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball.
Here is the LSU men’s basketball schedule as of September 6:
November
Sat. 12/ WOFFORD/TBA
Tues. 15/SOUTHERN MISS/TBA
Fri. 18/NORTH FLORIDA/TBA
Battle 4 Atlantis-Nov. 23-25
Wed. 23/vs. Wichita State (ESPN2)/11 a.m.
Thurs. 24/ vs. Louisville or Old Dominion/TBA
Fri. 25/TBA/TBA
Tues. 29/HOUSTON/TBA
December
Tues. 13/NC CENTRAL/TBA
Sat. 17/TEXAS SOUTHERN/TBA
Mon. 19/CHARLESTON/TBA
Thur. 22/at Wake Forest/TBA
Thurs. 29/VANDERBILT (ESPNU)/8 p.m.
January
Wed. 4/at Missouri (SECN)/8 p.m.
Sat. 7/MISS. STATE (SECN)/2:30 p.m.
Wed. 11/at Texas A&M (SECN)/7:30 p.m.
Sat. 14/ALABAMA (SECN)/2:30 p.m.
Wed. 18/at Auburn (SECN)/ 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 21/at Arkansas (SECN)/ 7:30 p.m.
Wed. 25/FLORIDA (SECN)/8 p.m.
SEC/Big 12 Challenge
Sat. 28/at Texas Tech (ESPNU)/1 p.m.
February
Wed. 1/SOUTH CAROLINA (SECN)/8 p.m.
Sat. 4/TEXAS A&M (ESPNU)/8 p.m.
Tues. 7/at Kentucky (ESPN)/6 p.m.
Sat. 11/ARKANSAS (SECN)/7:30 p.m.
Tues. 14/at Ole Miss (SECN)/8 p.m.
Sat. 18/at Alabama (SECN)/2:30 p.m.
Tues. 21/AUBURN (SECN)/6 p.m.
Sat. 25/at Georgia (SECN)/5 p.m.
March
Wed. 1/TENNESSEE (SECN)/6 p.m.
Sat. 4/at Miss. State (SECN)/5 p.m.
8-12/SEC Tournament (SECN, ESPN)/TBA
HOME GAMES IN ALL CAPS
* Designates SEC Games
SEC Tournament at Nashville, Tennessee